Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!

June 5, 2001


Page 1



Storms started to develop this day along a retreating dry line at its intersection with a frontal boundary.  The first storm in the area formed near Silverton and at least one landspout  was reported.
A landspout is usually defined as being a weak tornado forming on a storm that lacks storm scale rotation.  These are usually weak and short lived though the latter was not necessarily true on this day.  They are usually not beneath wall clouds, but rather are below a rain free base.

Click on the thumbnails or the linked #'s to see a normal size view.

#1  Heading northeast out of Lubbock on US 62/82 the storm near Quitaque was visible in the distance.  New development was occurring to the south and southwest along the frontal boundary.  The new development would be just north of US 70 by the time I got to Floydada.
#1 #2 #3

In #2, shot looking northeast from FM 28 just south of US 70 (in far eastern Floyd County), the intake area of a storm northwest of Matador can be seen.  It was high based but showing signs of rotation both visually and on Doppler radar.  Low level rotation was weak though it increased as precipitation began to wrap around the back of the intake area as seen in #3.  The outflow was not reaching the base of the next cell to the west southwest, which seemed to have a higher base and no real definition on the intake area as seen in #4.  There was a slight visible break between the cell to the northeast and this new developing cell.
As the outflow continued to wrap around the northeast cell, the intake area lowered and became a bit more interesting as seen in #5.  However, rotation and vertical motion remained rather weak.  This cell was now moving SE at about 5 MPH.
Looking back at the newer cell to the northwest, I was very surprised to see a small, but very well defined funnel (#6) hanging below the rain free base.  This looked like a 'cold air funnel' type and I didn't expect much of it at the time.  This was reported to the NWS  as a funnel, and now both the area to the northeast and this new funnel were closely monitored.
 
#4 #5 #6

A large area of rotating dust was seen under the base to the northeast (#7) and I thought that it might be about to form a tornado. However, it didn't persist and no funnel was detected from this intake area.
Checking back to the northwest showed a debris cloud forming below the funnel (#8) and the event was now reported as a tornado.  I should have followed my intuition at this point and headed west toward this event, but as there was still more interest in the area to the northeast, so I didn't move and hence did not get any closer to what would follow.
After about five minutes this 'landspout' began to dissipate (#9)
 
#7 #8 #9

Shortly after the dissipation of the 'spout, another debris/dust column was seen slight further south.  A third one appeared shortly after, again a short ways south of the second event.  A small funnel was seen briefly with the second tornado, but it didn't persist as long as the first.  The intake area to our northeast, now taking on a more shelf cloud like appearance (#10) was moving south and along with it came precipitation which motivated us to shift south on FM 28 to the north side of the community of Dougherty.
 
 
#10

The account will be continued on the next page.

Continued on Page 2.

Back to the Weather Page.

Back to the Main Page.